John Ralston Saul holds a Ph.D. in history from King's College (London). He is an internationally renowned novelist whose novel, The Paradise Eater, received the Premio Letterario Internazionale in 1990. Named one of Utne Reader's 100 "visionaries," he gave the prestigious 1995 Massey Lectures at the University of Toronto, on which The Unconscious Civilization is based. The book has been nominated for Canada's Governor's General Award for Nonfiction Literature. Saul lives in Toronto.